Emily Zoladz | The Grand Rapids PressThe Rev. Randy Buursma, of Grand Rapids, is senior pastor at First Christian Reformed Church on Bates Street SE. A longtime member of First CRC, Buursma was a Christian school teacher, then professor at Calvin College and earned his Ph.D. while teaching, then felt a call to ministry. He was ordained in November.

His experience with humility reached its zenith when he was a student at Calvin Theological Seminary. Buursma needed a little extra help with his Greek and Hebrew classes from a fellow student who was about the same age as his 20-something son.

“It was a breaking experience,” said Buursma, 54, who already had earned a doctorate in teacher education by the time he enrolled in the seminary. “I needed about five years of reminding myself I’m not the center of the story.”

It’s that self-effacing stance Buursma believes will make him a better minister.

Leader at First Church

Late last year, Buursma assumed the pastoral helm at First Christian Reformed Church on the Southeast Side that goes by the truncated name, First Church. The 400-member congregation was founded in 1857 and has been at its current location, 650 Bates St. SE, since 1912.

Buursma is no stranger to the First CRC congregation. He and his wife, Debra, became members when they were married at the church 31 years ago.

But his journey to the pastorate wasn’t exactly because Buursma heard from on high. Rather, he credits a bug flying inside his mouth for that dose of revelation.

Buursma started his career in education, first as an elementary teacher in the 1980s at the former Sylvan Christian School (now Grand Rapids Christian Middle School), then moving on to Calvin College in the 1990s, teaching elementary education and later student academic support.

He loved teaching. He was adept at working a classroom full of students.

“But there were things happening in church that kept pulling me,” Buursma said.

Among those things that tugged at his pastoral inclinations were the sermon notes Buursma would write on 3-by-5-inch cards and categorize at home in a file box.

“I’d write on both sides,” Buursma said. “I got to a point after a number of years that I’d like to start preaching among my own and make a message.

“My wife noticed what fed me, just my whole interest in worship and how it fed me.”

So Buursma took the plunge and enrolled in a class at the seminary that covered CRC history. It was a soul-searching experience for him.

“I thought to myself, ‘What am I doing?’ I’ve got a comfortable job that comes fairly naturally. Do I really want to get off the horse I’m on and get on another horse? I needed people to say to me, ‘This makes sense.’”

So he preached a sermon at Prince-ton CRC in Holland four years ago. Other preaching gigs followed, mostly for staff pastors who were on vacation, averaging three to four sermons a month in Michigan, Chicago, Wisconsin and elsewhere.

“It fed me,” Buursma said. “There’s something electric about it, to take the word and figure out what is God saying, and say it in a way that means something to me. That’s holy and humbling work.”

Asking for a sign

His first year in seminary wasn’t a cakewalk, though, in particular because his Greek and Hebrew classes proved intellectually vexing.

So one night, while looking into the stars, he decided to ask God for a sign that confirmed he was charting the right course.

“I requested to see a shooting star,” Buursma said. “Instead, a big bug flew into my mouth and lodged in my throat. I was coughing, my eyes were watering. And I sensed God saying, ‘Don’t ask for another sign. You just got what you needed.’ God gave me just enough in seminary to keep me going.”

Buursma received his master of divinity degree in May, became First Church’s pastor in September and was ordained in November.

“When the church said ‘yes,’ it just seemed right,” Buursma said. “I worried a lot about it at first. It is different being a pastor than being someone’s friend in the congregation. Can I love them in a different way and will they love and hear me in a different way?”

First Church’s pastor before Buursma, the Rev. Bill De Vries, said he has confidence in Buursma.

“He (Buursma) is deeply committed to sharing the love of Christ,” said De Vries, who recently retired from full-time ministry. “He is deeply committed to sharing the love of Christ with the lives of those he comes in contact with.”

Buursma said he’ll continue to lean on God to be his source of strength.

“I’ve got nothing, but I do have a God who keeps surprising me by using me,” he said.